Hancock fireworks draw big Monadnock-area crowd

HANCOCK — Thousands flocked to Norway Pond Saturday night for the only fireworks show left in the eastern Monadnock region.

Police Chief Andy Wood said he had two additional officers on duty in anticipation of a larger crowd this year.

The show usually attracts anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 people each July, but the town’s annual Fourth of July celebration is now the only fireworks show in the area after Jaffrey’s Festival of Fireworks and Peterborough’s Fourth of July firework shows were canceled this year.

Jaffrey’s show, which had attracted up to 30,000 people each August, was canceled because of the rising security costs brought on by last year’s bomb threat.

In Peterborough, after a long standing tradition of holding a Fourth of July fireworks show at ConVal High School, the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce had to cancel this year when school officials decided upgrades to the athletic fields should be protected and not subjected to the pedestrian traffic of the annual show.

Unable to find another venue, the chamber canceled the show.

In Hancock Saturday night spirits were high as Independence Day was celebrated. First with the ringing of the town bell at 6 p.m.

Longtime resident Bob Fogg opened the Hancock Congregational Church and its steeple bell to the children of the town to ring.

The ice cream social run by the Hancock Women’s Club also started at 6 p.m.

Around the town gazebo at 7 p.m. children read the Declaration of Independence.The town gathering is not as large as the Jaffrey and Peterborough events that had been large fundraisers for local charities that set up as vendors, but for the first time this year with both former events in mind, members of the Hancock Congregational Church set up a hotdog and drink booth on Main Street. They also sold glow sticks.Unfortunately the hot dogs were sold out by 7:30 p.m., but church members said they plan to bring more next year.